Since its opening in 2007, D.C.’s Ward 8 has only one grocery store. This week, the Giant supermarket there has reopened a community facility that helps residents in the area live a healthier and better life.
The refurbished Healthy Living Center also features a brand-new mural from a local artist.
The center’s team at the Giant on Alabama Avenue promotes nutrition education through in-person and virtual programming.
“We have store tours that we can provide for organizations,” said Leslie Jefferson, Giant’s community health program manager. “We also have online, virtual, on-demand videos that people can watch if you have diabetes, hypertension, or if you just want to learn how to plan a meal for your family.”
The center is also available to fill other community needs. They allow other folks to use the space for exercise sessions, yoga, job fairs and financial literacy classes.
Maureen Morris, an ambassador for the George Washington University Cancer Center, uses the room every Sunday to encourage woman who are shopping to get mammograms.
“A lot of people are coming through,” Morris told WTOP. “One lady said, ‘Asking me about my breasts at the Giant?’ Yes! Meet you where you are.”
She also encouraged men to get checked for prostate cancer and offered her help to set up screenings if they do not have a primary care physician.
“People come back and let me know, ‘Hey, I talked to my primary care and I’ve got that appointment.’ That’s what I want to hear,” she said.
Artist Doudgy Charmant painted the new mural in the updated facility.
“Where you have the community, you have the people eating and sharing time and space and being happy together, that gives you a full battery,” he said at the grand reopening on Tuesday.
At the forefront of the mural is a man preparing food with a phone battery icon above his head. It also includes D.C.’s iconic cherry blossoms, people running and exercising and a colossal, green Mother Earth lying in the background.
“It’s symbolic for Mother Earth being the giant in the background, but also symbolic for the Giant store,” he said.
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